The PPTA says the strike is in response to the government's collective agreement offer. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
*This story has been updated to show teacher stepped pay progression is for the first 10 years of service.
Secondary school teachers will strike next Wednesday following what they say is an unsatisfactory pay offer from the government.
The government has offered a 1 percent pay rise in collective agreement negotiations.
The Post Primary Teachers' Association said it was the lowest increase in a generation and comes as teachers face big changes to education.
"The decision to take strike action is not taken lightly but was endorsed overwhelmingly by PPTA members in a recent ballot," president Chris Abercrombie said.
"We would much prefer to have received a satisfactory offer from the government which addressed the significant challenges we are facing."
Abercrombie said if no progress was made, they would also roster students home and not teach certain year levels on specific days from 15 September.
Higher salaries were needed to attract and retain teachers, especially amid NCEA reforms, it said.
"We are also witnessing increasing numbers of young people struggling with more complex needs such as mental health, emotional and societal issues, that are not being met.
"Yet our claim for more pastoral care time and funding was completely ignored in the government's offer."
The offer also failed to address other claims like greater recognition of curriculum leaders, and the need for more subject specialist advisers, teacher-led professional learning and development funding, Abercrombie said.
"All of these are imperative for the success of the changes the government wants to make to secondary education."
He acknowledged the industrial action would be disruptive for parents and caregivers, but asked them to stand with teachers as they seek a better deal.
Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche, who is overseeing negotiations, said the union was choosing grandstanding and strikes over constructive dialogue.
They had only been bargaining for six days, and the government's offer was reasonable, he said.
"I urge the union to reconsider what I believe is a fair offer, on top of the significant pay advances (14.5 percent) secondary teachers have received over the last three years."
"This is not the time for grandstanding or escalation - it's a time for constructive dialogue."
The government had to live within its means, he said: "We don't have a bottomless pot of taxpayers' money."
Roche said the average secondary school teacher income was currently $100,000, and a teacher with 10 years' experience can earn up to $147,000 including allowances.
"The offer the union has rejected represented a 3 percent increase over three years, on top of annual pay progression of between 4.5 percent and 7.5 percent," he said.
But the PPTA said it was "simply not true" that a teacher with 10 years' experience could earn up to $147,000.
"Only members of a school's senior leadership team can earn that kind of salary - not an everyday classroom teacher," it said.
Teachers’ annual stepped pay progression also stops after 10 years of service.
The primary teachers' union, NZEI also rejected the government's 1 percent pay rise last week.
From next week, they will head into mass paid union meetings with other education member groups, including principals, support staff and Ministry of Education learning support to decide on their next steps.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
